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A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page |
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San
José, Costa Rica, Monday, Nov. 17, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 227
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Telethon will
include U.S. participants
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Even Costa Ricans and friends of Costa Rica in the United States will be contributing to the Teletón 2014 that takes place Dec. 5 and 6. The telethon is a project of the Club Activo 20-30 Internacional de San José, and the organization hopes to raise 703 million colons this year. That's about $1.3 million. The Asociación Costa Rica said over the weekend that it would hold an event to collect funds for the telethon Dec. 2 in the Costa Rican Embassy in Washington. There is an evening reception with a $20 admission. Those who attend will be taped for display during the telethon. A beneficiary of the telethon again this year will be the Hospital Nacional de Niños. The telethon will be aired by local television stations. It begins at 9 p.m. Dec. 5 and runs until midnight the next day. The Club Activo 20-30 Internacional notes that other hospitals also are beneficiaries of the funds collected. The club also said that there will be gatherings of Costa Ricans in other U.S. cities for participation in the telethon. They include Washington, Connecticut, Boston, Atlanta and a location in New Jersey. There are a number of local and international performers who participate gratis in the telethon.  Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad
photo
President Luis Guillermo Solís gets a briefing on the Proyecto
Las
Pailas II
geothermal generating plant that will be online in 2018. The $333.4 million project will provide power for the equivalent of 130,000 homes. Solís visited the site in Curubandé de Liberia, Guanacaste, Friday. Couples who kiss share oral critters By
the BioMed Central news staff
As many as 80 million bacteria are transferred during a 10-second kiss, according to research published in the open access journal Microbiome. The study also found that partners who kiss each other at least nine times a day share similar communities of oral bacteria. The ecosystem of more than 100 trillion microorganisms that live in human bodies - the microbiome - is essential for the digestion of food, synthesizing nutrients, and preventing disease. It is shaped by genetics, diet, and age, but also the individuals with whom we interact. With the mouth playing host to more than 700 varieties of bacteria, the oral microbiota also appear to be influenced by those closest to us. Researchers from Micropia and TNO in the Netherlands studied 21 couples, asking them to fill out questionnaires on their kissing behavior including their average intimate kiss frequency. They then took swab samples to investigate the composition of their oral microbiota on the tongue and in their saliva. The results showed that when couples intimately kiss at relatively high frequencies their salivary microbiota become similar. On average it was found that at least nine intimate kisses per day led to couples having significantly shared salivary microbiota. Lead author Remco Kort, from TNO's Microbiology and Systems Biology department and adviser to the Micropia museum of microbes, said: "Intimate kissing involving full tongue contact and saliva exchange appears to be a courtship behavior unique to humans and is common in over 90 percent of known cultures. Interestingly, the current explanations for the function of intimate kissing in humans include an important role for the microbiota present in the oral cavity, although to our knowledge, the exact effects of intimate kissing on the oral microbiota have never been studied. We wanted to find out the extent to which partners share their oral microbiota, and it turns out, the more a couple kiss, the more similar they are."
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Nov. 17, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 227 | |
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The bridges
are coming The Consejo Nacional de Vialidad has awarded a $2.7 million contract to Constructora Meco S.A. to install five bailey bridges between Puerto Jiménez and Carate at the tip of the Osa Peninsula. Work is supposed to start next year. The bridges will be placed at the ríos Sombrerito and Piro and the ravines Carbonera, Bijagual and Camañín. Right now tourists require a four-wheel drive vehicle to make the trip. |
 Consejo
Nacional de Vialidad graphic
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| State Department shuts down its email service because of
hackers |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Wire service reports from Washington say that the U.S. State Department has taken the unprecedented step of shutting down its entire unclassified email system, in the wake of a suspected hacker attack. This is the same system that staffers at the U.S. Embassy here use to communicate with expats. There has been no local word about the situation, but the embassy Web site was lacking some key features Sunday night. Technicians are repairing possible damage from an attack that |
occurred at about
the same time as another one on the White House computer
network, reported last month, the wire service report said. Since the White House email attack, several government agencies, including the U.S. Postal Service and the National Weather Service, have reported attacks, the services added. Chinese or Russian hackers have been blamed for the earlier attacks, but this has not been publicly confirmed. The State Department is expected to address the shutdown once the security improvements have been completed on today or Tuesday. |
 Ministerio de Gobernación,
Policía y Seguridad Pública photo
This is part of the confiscated
fireworks from buses in Golfito. |
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| Two buses yield more explosive fireworks at Golfito
checkpoint |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Fuerza Pública officers have confiscated two more loads of fireworks that came from the southern border. The explosives were on buses, which caused police to express concern. They said there were at least 19,000 units. Police located the fireworks at the Guaycará de Golfito checkpoint some 35 kilometers north of the border. One of the buses carried passengers on a private shopping trip and was headed back to Puntarenas. |
Police said that
some of the fireworks were in a basket atop the bus and exposed to the
hot sun. Some of the confiscated devices were rockets with the explosive equivalent of a quarter stick of dynamite, police said. A passenger in the second bus carried about 3,000 units of fireworks, police said. At the same time police said they confiscated about 1 million colons worth of contraband clothing and shoes. |
| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Nov. 17, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 227 | |||||
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| Researcher tracks the aliments that come from the Western
diet |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The globalization of Western eating habits is bad for human health and for the environment, according to a new study in the journal Nature. In the study, David Tilman, a University of Minnesota ecology professor, analyzed data from 100 countries to chart what people ate and how diet affected health. He noted a trend beginning in the 1960s: As nations industrialized, population increased and incomes rose. More people began to adopt the so-called Western diet, one high in refined sugar, fat, oil and meat. People began to get fatter and sicker. “The excess in the 15 richest nations of the world right now," Tilman said, "is on the order of about 400 or 500 extra calories a day beyond what people need, and that leads people to gain weight.” Overweight people are at greater risk for noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and some cancers, Tilman said. “Diabetes is shooting to very high rates in the United States and across Europe," he said. "Heart disease is a major cause of mortality in the Western countries. And unfortunately, when people become industrialized, if they adopt this Western diet, they are going to have |
these same
health impacts, and in some cases if you are Asian, you have
them more severely than even happens in the West.” That’s the case in China, where diabetes has skyrocketed from less than 1 percent to 10 percent of the population having diabetes over a 20-year period. “It has not leveled off yet. It is still going up," Tilman said. "And that is happening all across the world, in Mexico, in Nigeria and so on, in nation after nation.” The diet bad for humans is also bad for the environment, he said. Experts predict that as global population grows, more forests and tropical habitats will be converted into farmland for crops or grazing pasture for cattle to meet the increased demand for food. “We are likely to have more greenhouse gas released in the future from agriculture because of this dietary shift than all the greenhouse gas that right now comes out of all the cars, and all of the airplanes, boats and ships, all forms of transportation,” Tilman said. Tilman said reducing the Western diet's adverse impact on human health and the environment is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity. |
Here's reasonable medical care
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Nov. 17, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 227 | |||||||
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| Obama laments execution of former U.S. Ranger By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. President Barack Obama has confirmed the death of American hostage Abdul-Rahman Kassig, saying the aid worker was killed in an act of pure evil by Islamic State militants. In a statement to reporters aboard Air Force One Sunday, Obama offered prayers and condolences to Kassig's parents and family. He accused the Islamic State of reveling in the slaughter of innocents, including Muslims, and is bent only on sowing death and destruction. The president was on his way home after attending the G20 summit in Australia. Confirmation of Kassig's death came after a review of a video released Sunday by the Islamic State that purported to show extremists beheading Syrian soldiers and concluded with a militant claiming to have killed the American. The video did not show the beheading. The militant in the clip, who speaks with a British accent, says the first American crusader will be buried in the northern Syrian town of Dabig, and warns that U.S. soldiers will meet a similar fate. The same video showed the beheadings of at least 18 men described as Syrian military personnel. Kassig, a 26-year-old former U.S. Army Ranger, was taken captive 13 months ago while doing humanitarian work in war-torn Syria. His family said he converted to Islam while in captivity and changed his first name from Peter to Abdul-Rahman. With Kassig's death, the Islamic State terrorist group has killed five Westerners it was holding. The militants earlier victims were British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, U.S. reporter James Foley and American-Israeli journalist Steven Sotloff, who were all beheaded. Kassig's mother, Paula, recently told NBC's Today show that she and her husband received an audio recording of their son several weeks ago in which he said he feared his time was running out. In a statement Sunday, the Kassig family urged the media not to broadcast images released by the militants, saying this was "playing into the hostage takers hands." British Prime Minister David Cameron said he was horrified by Kassig's "cold-blooded murder." Obama expected to trigger immigration political fight By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. President Barack Obama is heading back to Washington where a contentious political fight with opposition lawmakers is brewing over his plan to unilaterally overhaul the country's immigration policies. White House aides say Obama, returning Sunday from a trip to Asia and meetings with world leaders, could act in the coming days to shield from deportation about five million migrants who are living illegally in the United States. As he left Brisbane, Australia, after a G20 economic summit, Obama again said he is prepared to use his executive powers, allowing him to bypass Congress, to impose sweeping immigration reforms. He reiterated that he wishes Congress would enact comprehensive reforms but, absent congressional action, said he would be remiss to not act on his own. "I would be derelict in my duties if I did not try to improve a system that everybody acknowledges is broken," said the president. Obama said he would not be swayed from introducing new immigration rules by threats from some members of Congress to take actions that could lead to another government shutdown. Many Republican lawmakers have chided Obama, a Democrat, for his prospective immigration changes. They say that the new rules would amount to amnesty for lawbreakers. The U.S. Senate more than a year ago approved a comprehensive package of immigration reforms, but Republicans in the House of Representatives have balked at voting on the measure. Sen. John McCain, one Republican who supports immigration reforms, urged Obama to "give the new Congress some time" to see if it can move forward. He warned that any executive action could have "real repercussions" for cooperation between the White House and Congress. McCain, Obama's 2008 presidential election opponent, is a senator from the border state of Arizona where many undocumented immigrants cross over from Mexico. Iranian dress code bill would support vigilantes By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Iran’s parliament last week approved a bill that would allow paramilitary forces to return to public streets and verbally enforce strict Islamic dress codes. Meanwhile, hardliners are reportedly pushing legislation that would support and protect citizen vigilantes who also want to help enforce the hijab. This comes in the wake of a string of acid attacks on women in Isfahan for not dressing properly. President Hassan Rouhani repeatedly pledged to promote women’s rights and relax tough dress codes during his campaign and since was elected. Nasrin Afzali doesn’t think so. A feminist activist now living in Canada, she once wrote for Zanan, a leading feminist magazine Iran shut down in 2007. She also received a suspended sentence of ten lashes and six months in jail for taking part in protests against gender discrimination. She sees recent events as part of a continuum that began with the Islamic revolution. “It’s just a part of the same misogynist policy that has been going on for the last 35 years,” she said. “Another link in the chain of the Islamic Republic’s gender ideology.” And she points out that the Isfahan acid attacks last month are not the first in recent times. Islamic tradition requires women to dress modestly, but how they do so varies from country to country. The hijab can include anything from a simple head covering to the chador, a full black cloak that encircles the entire head and body. In 1936, Reza Shah Pahlavi banned traditional Islamic dress in Iran and imposed European clothing as part of an effort to modernize and secularize along Western lines — and sideline religious leaders. The 1979 revolution came as a reaction to the repressive policies of the Shah and a rejection of the U.S., which had supported him. Many women protesters donned the hijab in a gesture of defiance as well as support of Ayatollah Khomeini, who preached a return to traditional Islamic law. But shortly after he took power, Khomeini made the hijab compulsory and imposed tough penalties for violators. Under Mohammed Khatami, elected in 1997, women fared a little better. “During the first years of the Khatemi era,” Ms. Afzali recalled, “we thought that all the black days were finished and that we would never see the moral police in the streets. I joined the first feminist Web site, and we wrote about women’s issues, and for the first time after the Revolution, NGOs were created, dealing with women and other social issues.” Things changed under Ahmadinejad, elected in 2005, who worked to curb the women’s movement. His government shut down Zanan and allowed morality police to harass — sometimes brutally — and arrest women for improper hijab. In the run-up to his 2013 election, Iran’s current president, Hassan Rouhani, promised to end the oppression of women and stop gender-based violence. He has repeatedly spoken out against the enforcement of tough Islamic dress codes by so-called morality police. "Women must enjoy equal opportunity, equal protection and equal social rights," he said in comments that were broadcast live on television. In November, 2013, he banned the morality police from arresting women. “Modesty is beyond wearing the hijab,” he said at the time. “The way the vigilantes interpret the question of modesty antagonizes our society and has negative results which is contrary to the teaching of Islam and is unconstitutional.” That kind of rhetoric seemed to indicate Rouhani is committed to improving the lot of Iran’s women. But some analysts say that’s too simplistic a reading. “Rouhani is a statist,” said Iranian analyst Steven Ditto. “He believes in the absolute authority of Khamenei. He is deeply committed to the ideals of the Islamic Revolution.” What makes Rouhani different — and what gives him the reputation of being a reformist — is his belief that small-scale reforms can actually strengthen Iran politically. “Rouhani deeply believes that through tweaking the status quo in terms of minority rights, education, and women's rights — along with easing economic pressure on Iran through nuclear negotiations — he can breathe fresh air into how the Iranian system is viewed domestically, by ordinary Iranians,” Ditto said. “People will have pride to live in an Islamic country that combines an Islamic and Iranian identity.” And this pride will lead to development, medical and scientific advances, he said, and enable Iran to meet long-term foreign policy goals. “There is no doubt Rouhani is committed to women's rights. But, does he care about women in and of themselves? Does he care about reform as an end unto itself? No. Rather, he views them as necessary for the ends of the state,” Ditto said. Last month, an unknown number of men on motorcycles threw acid at women they deemed were improperly dressed. Details are fuzzy, in part because of a crackdown on media coverage of the attacks. As many as two dozen women may have been targeted. The attacks followed an earlier announcement by the radical Islamist group Ansar-e-Hezbollah, which has a history of attacking individuals and institutions it deems as un-Islamic. Sept. 14, the group announced it would shortly dispatch thousands of male and female vigilantes into the streets to enforce proper dress codes. “The attacks were very organized,” Ms. Afzali said. “The assailants were guarded by others driving cars behind them. And a few days before the attack, some women say they were sent text messages in warning .” She blames government conservatives and religious leaders for encouraging the violence. “For one or two years, all of the Friday prayers have been focused on the hijab,” Ms. Afzali said. They were very clear. They said the verbal enforcement of the hijab is no longer enough, and people should use physical force, even ‘shed some blood.’” Isfahan’s Friday prayer leader called the acid attacks reprehensible. In Iran, acid throwing is a capital offense. But hardliners in parliament have been looking for ways to protect vigilantes trying to enforce the hijab. Pending legislation to promote virtue and prevent vice would do just that. “It’s a very general law that essentially codifies something that is already in Iran’s constitution,” said Human Rights Watch Iran researcher Faraz Sanei. “There’s an article in Iran’s constitution that essentially says that the government must create a favorable environment for the growth of moral virtues based on faith and piety and the struggle against all forms of vice and corruption," Sanei said. "The people in parliament who introduced this bill say they are simply implementing and codifying what’s law already." Parliament has already approved portions of the bill, but it’s still a long way from law. “It still has to be vetted by the Guardian Council to ensure that it is in compliance with Sharia law, and then of course after that, it has to be signed by the president and published in the country’s official journal,” Sanei said. If the bill passes, Sanei worries, it could open the door to more attacks. Rouhani has harshly criticized the bill and promised harsh punishment for the acid attackers. At least 10 suspects were arrested in October — and later released. But Iran’s women, in the meantime, are dressing with a little more care. Comet probe nods off with hopes of recharging By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Hundreds of millions of kilometers from earth, a European spacecraft made history Wednesday by successfully landing on the icy, dusty surface of a speeding comet, an audacious first designed to answer big questions about the universe. However, by Saturday, the European Space Agency says the batteries of Philae, the comet probe, were depleted, but not before delivering reams of data about its surroundings back to Earth. The space agency says Philae was lifted Friday by about 4 centimeters and rotated 35 degrees in an effort to pull it out of a shadow so its solar panels could recharge its spent batteries. It was not immediately clear whether the difficult rotation was successful in bringing the panels out of the shade. Even if the rotation was successful, it may take weeks or months before Philae can send out new signals. Regular checks for signals will continue. The last signals were received Saturday morning. Philae became the first-ever man-made object to land on a comet when it touched down, seven hours after separating from its Rosetta mothership. Agency officials say the probe bounced on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko twice because its harpoons, which were designed to anchor Philae to the surface, failed to deploy. The space agency says the 100-kilogram lander has sent back unprecedented images of its surroundings. The agency says descent images show the surface of the comet is covered by dust and debris ranging from millimeter to meter sizes, while panoramic views show layered walls of "harder-looking material." The ESA's team of scientists is now evaluating the data and is attempting to determine whether experiments were successful, especially a complex operation in which the lander was given commands to drill a 25-centimeter hole into the comet and pull out a sample for analysis. ESA mission chief Paolo Ferri said Saturday the agency was not sure if the drill had touched the ground during the drilling operation. Scientists hope the $1.6 billion project will help answer questions about the origins of the universe and life on Earth. Scientists say drilled samples from the comet would unlock details about how the planets evolved. Comets date back to the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago. Scientists suspect impacting comets delivered water to the young Earth. Matt Taylor, the space agency's Rosetta project scientists, says "the data collected by Philae and Rosetta is set to make this mission a game-changer in cometary science." The Rosetta became the first ever spacecraft to rendezvous with a comet back in August after a 10-year journey that included a slingshot flight path around Earth and Mars before it could gain enough speed to reach Comet 67P. Rosetta will escort Comet 67P and Philae for the next year and observe it as it heads towards the sun. |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's sixth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Nov. 17, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 227 | |||||||||
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It seems that the
worms are well-traveled
Oops! When I goof up, I do it well, but, thanks to my readers, I can correct my mistakes. After last week’s column about gardening at elevation, I received a number of letters pointing out that we have plenty of earthworms at higher elevations here in Costa Rica. At first, I blamed it on our many microclimates. Wrong again. Earthworms, it seems, thrive just about everywhere that there is biomass for them to enjoy. As to making good compost, Paula, who lived at 2,300 meters, suggests that
As to those pests, ants and termites, Bob, who lives at 1,300 meters, has plenty
And what should we grow at higher elevations? I always suggest looking at what your neighbors are growing successfully. After all, atmospheric pressure, temperature, sunlight, and other factors play into the production of a successful crop. Paula found that potatoes, cabbages, Brussel sprouts and strawberries, the “northern crops,” did well at elevation. Ivy pointed out that palms grew more slowly at elevation but that her azaleas, rhubarb, and iris did well. So, my apologies to the humble earthworm and my thanks to my readers. I do a lot of research for the column, but sometimes the best information comes from people with their toes in the earth and sweat on their brows. If you catches me in an error, let me know, I welcome your input. Plant
of the Day
For variety of foliage colors, few plants can beat the coleus. Reds, yellow, purples, bronze, lightly or heavily variegated, coleus are a plus in soil or
If you would like to suggest a topic for this column, simply send a letter to the editor. And, for more garden tips, visit the Arenal Gardeners Facebook page. |
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| From Page 7: Five restaurants win sustainable certification By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Five restaurants have qualified for the certificate of sustainable tourism. They are the Restaurante Fogo in the Holiday Inn, San José; the Restaurante Cañón de la Vieja in the lodge of the same name near Liberia; the Restaurante Vista del Golfo at Casa Conde del Mar Hotel and Resort, Golfo de Papagayo; the Restaurante Lagarta at Lagarta Lodge near Nosara, and Restaurante Jaguar at Buena Vista Lodge at Rincon de La Vieja. The Instituto Costarricense de Turismo said that 19 other restaurants are under evaluation for certification. The certification was designed to differentiate businesses of the tourism sector, based on the degree to which they comply with a sustainable model of natural, cultural and social resource management, said the institute. Previously, rental car agencies, hotels and tourism projects have gained certification. In the case of restaurants, the evaluation considered quality of services as well as the potential to reenforce the local cultural heritage were considered, said the institute. The evaluation considered the promotion of the Costa Rican food identity, said the institute. |
